How To Make Money in Livestock Farming

Many Nigerian Youths are moving to the urban areas in search of scarce white-collar jobs however, there are many innovative ways to make money in Animal Farming that will create jobs both for themselves and many others in the value chain.

Today, I will be sharing with you, few innovative ways you can make money from Animal farming.

The options may not be so popular to many but they sure will give you good returns when you are consistent and dedicated to the business!

You can make money from:

Grasscutter / Rabbit FarmingGrasscutter seems to be the easiest and cheapest to invest in, the reason being that in grasscutter farming, you don’t need to buy feed like you do in fish farming, pig farming and poultry farming.

Its a business one can start with N50,000.

This enables the beginner to purchase a family of grass cutter comprising one male and four females referred to as a colony.

A colony is sold for between N35,000 and N45,000 depending on the age, weight and specie. They can be reared in cages which cost N5,000. Grasscutter farming is probably the easiest way for people to become involved in agriculture. Grasscutter can be reared at home. The cages can be kept in thehouse, compound, under staircase or within a kitchen space if there is no money to rent or buy a land for the business. Grasscutter feeds on grass, occasionally you may need to feed with concentrates.The good thing is that one female grasscutter can give five to eight litters (babies) at a go. Four female means at least five litters (babies) each. This gives up to 20 litters at the end of the day. One can buy young grasscutter breeding stock at four months and rear them foranother four months, they will start making babies when they are eight months old.

If one does not have enough space to expand, the best option is to sell the babies to potential farmers. There are demand always coming from hotels, eateries, beer palours and restaurants because of its dietary and nutritious value.

Pig farmingPig farming is also profitable. The business requires patience. Anyone who wishes to go into pig farming must have passion for the business. Feeding pigs takes a period of 5 to 7 months before they mature for selling. You need to start with the weaners and they go for about N4,000. Those who don’t have good knowledge of the business can end up feeding their pigs for 10 months and get just 50kg.But if you really understand the nitty-gritty of pig farming, at seven months after weaning, you can get 75kg to 90kg. Pigs are sold according to their weight. If a pig weighs 90kg that means it will be sold for N22,500 at the rate of N250 per kilogramme, one can get between 12 to 18 piglets from sow at a go.

Snail productionCommercial Snail farming is profitable, if you stock 1,000 snails, all of them are potential egg layers because snails are hermaphrodite. A snail has both male and female reproductive organs. A snail can lay eggs between nine to ten times a year. This means that one snail can give you over 100 eggs in a year, this will amount to 100,000 snails in a year if you are using free range snail farming method.The demand for snails at the moment is higher than supply. The five star hotels, eateries, relaxation centres and beer parlours are regular buyers of this meat. Interestingly, a snail farmer using free range system can as well incorporate banana plantation into the system thereby creating more than two businesses with one facility, snails are also in high demand outside Nigeria.

Hope you enjoyed the innovative ideas highlighted above, prepare your mind for the next on the Series: Innovative ideas to make money in Animal processing & Packaging!